This plant is completely parasitic on the roots of other plants, mainly different species of clover, so it lacks green leaves of any kind. The leaves are reduced to brownish scales visible along the stem.

The flowers develop on compact spikes and when they are freshly opened, they are surprisingly beautiful. The inside is glossy and deep red with a contrasting yellow point marking the tip of the female stigma. The petals have a frilly appearance, edged in yellow. (see photo button !D! below)

This is a perennial parasitic plant that lives underground as a large stock of branching scaly rhizomes, sometimes reaching 2 metres in length and a combined weight of 5 kg. They produce outgrowths called haustoria that penetrate the root tissues of certain trees, mainly hazel, alder and occasionally beech, absorbing water and nutrients from them. The scales are fleshy and have a storage function as well as exuding water to help keep a water balance between the parasite and its host and softening the ground around the rhizomes.. The only time these plants are visible at the surface are when they produce short flower spikes in early spring, soon after the snow melts in March to April and as soon as the sap begins to rise in the host trees.

The plant only begins to flower after about 10 years of growth underground. The flowers are a delicate pink when they first appear but soon become brownish and hardly visible amongst the leaf mould on the ground. The spikes are often bent and the compact flowers tend to lean over in the same direction. They are pollinated by bees but, in unfavourable conditions, can self-pollinate within the unopened flower.

This is an uncommon plant found in poor grassland areas, often dry but sometimes damp and trampled.

It is a semi-parasitic annual, reproducing from seed only. Its roots attach to the roots of surrounding herbaceous plants and 'steal' nourishment from them through special docking and suction organs called haustoria. For this reason the leaves of Odontites are relatively small and unimportant as a food provider for the plant. There is an interesting genetic transfer that can occur between the parasite and its host plant so that Odontites sometimes shows unusual variations. The dependency of Odontites to its hosts is emphasised by the fact that the seeds will only germinate where a potential host plant is nearby.

The fruit is in the form of a capsule containing tiny seeds that are scattered in dry conditions.

The relatively late blooming makes it a valuable source of nectar for bees and other insect pollinators late in the season.

Yellow Rattle’s preferred habitat is dry fields or grassy meadows. It is a hemi-parasitic herbaceous annual plant that gains some of its nutrients from the roots of neighbouring plants such as certain species of grass and clover.

Each flower has a large triangular, toothed leaf immediately beneath it. The lower lip of the flower is three-lobed and curved downwards, the convex upper lip is pinched together at the tip with two dark purple teeth just beneath. See photo button !D! below

The fruit is a dry capsule, which contains loose, rattling seeds when ripe; the plant's name refers to these. See photo button !S! below.